My 8 E-books written over the years by Alina Udrea - HTML preview

CHAPTER 3

When Sam woke up, she didn’t know where she was. She didn’t

recognize anything around her. It was still dark so she thought she couldn’t have fainted for more than a few minutes. She tried to get up from the hard ground. Her head was still light and dizzy. As she managed to get up she looked for the bench to rest a bit before going indoors. But the bench had vanished. The oak was still there, though. She strained her eyes to look for the house when she realized that it just wasn’t there anymore! She took a few more steps in the dark when she realized she was in a park. There were lots of oak trees and pine trees and lots of benches. But not “her” bench. Nope, that was nowhere in sight. Then suddenly from place to place there was light coming from pillars. She had never seen anything like it before. Now she was sure she was in a park. But she had no idea where she was. She took a few steps towards one of the lit pillars when she saw a boy kissing a girl while an iron beast on two wheels was ready to attack them or something. Then at a second look she saw that they were kissing while leaning against the beast. Maybe it was their pet? But it didn’t make any sounds and it didn’t seem to be alive. Maybe the boy had just slain it and the girl was kissing him with gratitude for having saved her. Sam decided to go closer and check it out. When she got close enough she observed that they were clad in a funny way. She had never seen clothes like theirs before. Perhaps they were sorcerers, Sam thought. But she needed directions so she approached them carefully. At a closer inspection, she saw that the boy had long hair that went

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beyond his shoulders and the girl had short spiky hair and her eyes looked funny. And her lips. Maybe the iron beast had hurt her before the boy had killed it. The boy had a ring in his lower lip and another one in his ear while the girl had none. Sam was pretty much confused by now. Weren’t girls supposed to have long hair and rings in their ears and boys short hair and no rings? Where was she?, she thought to herself when the better question should have been “when”, not “where”……

“Hi…” Sam said shyly when she got next to them. But they just ignored her. So she tried again, this time a little louder. “Hello…”. This time she got a reaction. Not what she would have expected, nonetheless. “Beat it, weirdo” said the boy in a rough voice while the girl grinned at her and then started laughing. She decided to leave them alone and find someone else, someone nicer. While she was going away she could hear them talking about her. The girl was saying that she looked funny and that her clothes were so plain and out of place. Sam thought the same thing about them. Something was clearly not right. She went down the alley in the park until she reached its end. Then all just got to a whole new level of weird. There were so many lights and noises coming from just about everywhere. All the houses were lit but that wasn’t candle light, couldn’t be. It was way stronger, just like the lights in the park. And whoa, there were other buildings, like sorcerers' towers or something. And there were lights everywhere. “Are there so many wizards here?” She wondered as there were towers everywhere. Where was she? Clearly she wasn’t in her home town anymore.

As she was about to cross the street she was almost knocked down by

something that went by her as swift as the wind. “What in God’s name was that!?” Sam wondered as she had almost been hit by a passing car. But she didn’t know that as had had never seen one before…. In 1719 there were no cars.

“What kind of monster was that?” Sam thought hardly breathing with fright. But then she was glad that at least the monster had passed by her and hadn’t attacked her. Then she saw them. There were lots of

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monsters like that on the side of the road. They seemed asleep, although they weren’t snoring. And they had all kids of colors and shapes. The city was probably invaded by them. She wished she could find someone to ask about all this. Someone else besides the rude boy and girl she had met earlier.

She walked down the street when she saw something that reeked

of alcohol and puke. It was surely a pub. She should know, she used to work in an inn. She knew what it smelled like. The door was ajar and there was a lot of noise coming from inside. So she decided to go an in and ask around. She pushed the door open when the odors inside made her want to go back out. But she needed answers so she pushed on. The pub was full of lively people drinking, joking, singing. But they all had funny clothes. She had never seen such fashion before. Then at a quick glance she realized that there were only men in there. And they had something in common, she couldn’t put her finger on it, but there was something about them….

Then she saw the strangest thing: there was this box with moving

images. Wait, there were small people inside it and they were talking. How the hell were people inside a square box looking alive, speaking and acting all normal? She went behind it to see if there were more there or something. She was wondering how nobody seemed to care that there were small people trapped in there. She approached the TV and tried to get the people out, but of course she couldn’t. “What’s wrong with you?” said a man right next to her. “You ok miss!?” asked another.

But all the world seemed to be spinning with her. Before she could answer, she saw a man kissing another… man! Whoa! She didn’t know what to make of it. That was new to her and the way it seemed natural to everybody else. Then a well-dressed lady in the box said that a new type of phone had just been released at the beginning of March 2019? 2019???? Then everything else she said was just blah, blah, blah for Sam. She had no idea what a phone was but that wasn’t the problem. The year was. 2019???

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How? She was born in 1702. It was 1719 now and had just turned 17.This couldn’t be happening. She wasn’t 300 years old hahaha. She was 17. She had to get out and calm her shaky nerves. She went back to the quietness of the park and found a bench. She sat there, thinking. It was almost dawn when she decided that she must have traveled in time. She had no clue how or how to go back. The last thing she remembered before all the strangeness was the silver moon and the oak in the garden that seemed to have whispered to her. Then she was here, wherever here was. Or maybe it was the same town, her town, just the year was different. Yeah, that must have been what happened. “Well”, she thought, “I wanted to see the world, guess this is my chance, so I'd better make the best of it!”

The first rays of light were caressing her skin. She was hungry and

thirsty. She wasn’t sure which was worse. She found a spring in the park and she quenched her thirst. Now to do something about her hunger. She was sure she wouldn’t find food hanging from the trees, so she had to find some.

She got up from the bench and headed towards the big buildings.

When she got there, they seemed less scary than during the night. But just as impressive. She saw a girl walking a dog towards her and decided to find out more about the fascinating place she was in. Or fascinating time. Or both. Or whatever.

“Hi, miss.” Said Sam as she started petting the girl's dog. It was a big breed. Not scary though. She had never seen a dog like that before but it was just a dog, right? And she was good with animals. She wasn’t afraid of any dogs.

“Hi” came the coy reply from the little miss. “My dog seems to like you. She doesn’t like just anyone. You must be special” the girl was saying as Sam was still petting the huge CaneCorso. “I’m Sam” and she shook hands with the girl. “I’m Natalie. Nice to meet you. And this is Sasha” Natalie said pointing to the dog.

Before Sam got the chance to say anything else, Natalie went on.

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“Your clothes are kind of funny. Are you working at the theater?”

“The theater!? No, they are my clothes. What’s so funny about them?”

“They look old and ragged and outdated. You could use some new clothes. My parents might help you.” Said Natalie mistaking Sam for a beggar. Just then a middle-aged man called Natalie's name while approaching them.

“Who’s your friend, Nat?” Asked the man when he got next to them. “Dad, this is Sam. Sam, dad.”

“Hi there, Sam. I'm Mike. Where are you from, Sam?”

“Daaad, leave her alone. Could you stop acting like a cop for a minute? You are embarrassing me.” Said Natalie faking to be upset. “ A cop? Never heard the word before… “ said Sam looking at them inquiringly.

They both burst into laughter. But then they realized that the girl standing before them was serious. So Mike tried to clear things up. “A cop means a police officer. Where are you from that you don’t know the word?”

“Uhh. This seems to get even more uncomfortable but what is a police officer!?” asked Sam again.

“You can’t be serious!!” Said Natalie wondering who Sam really was. But by now Mike was also wondering the same thing. By the look on Sam' s face they realized she wasn’t joking. She clearly had no clue what they were talking about. “Are you sick, Sam? What is your last name? Maybe I can help you get home… “ Mike offered thinking that maybe she was sick and needed medication.

“No. I'm not sick. I'm hungry, though…” she said out loud while thinking that she hadn’t eaten since yesterday at noon, which was 300 years ago…. As strange as that sounded.

“Dad, can she come to our place!? Please, we could get her something to eat and maybe some other clothes…” said Nat with big pleading puppy eyes.

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“I see no harm in that. Come, my wife is making lunch. You can eat with us and then tell us more about you. Is that ok for you, Sam!?” uttered Mike. He was a cop, a good one as far as he knew, so he was going to get to the bottom of this.

Say’s eyes shone with pleasure. She was so lucky, she thought. And out loud she said “Sounds good to me, too”.

“Cool!!” said Nat jumping with joy as she had no friends besides her dog Sasha and well, Sasha couldn’t answer back. Natalie and Sam went ahead, Sam following Natalie, while Mike was right behind them. He took out his phone to call Diana, his wife. He started talking to her on the phone, explaining that Nat was bringing a friend over for lunch and asking her to prepare one more dish. Sam heard Mike talking and wondered who he was talking to as there was nobody there besides Natalie and her. And she had clearly heard Mike addressing his wife. She turned around just in time to see Mike talking in a small device and she heard a distant voice, a woman's voice, coming from inside. She just stood there, looking at him and wondering how was a woman inside such a small box or whatever that was. Last night she had seen people moving and talking in a larger box but this was too much.

“What is that?” Sam finally asked.

“What? This?” said Mike while he handed her the phone, while studying her expression and reaction just as hard as she was studying the device in her palms.

“Don’t tell me you've never seen a phone before….” Said Mike in disbelief.

“To tell you the truth, sir, I have never seen most of the things I see before. Like those fast monsters going down the….! Oh my god! Look, more monsters and they have people inside them!! Help!! Last night they had no people in them, must have starved and now look, Mike, Nat, they have people inside!!” Said Sam before she fainted. When she woke up she was on a cozy bed and Nat and Sasha were by her side. The door to the room was ajar and she could hear Mike

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talking to a woman who was probably his wife. “Mom, dad, she's awake!” yelled Nat while Sasha started barking anxiously.

No sooner had Nat called for her parents when Mike was in the

doorway followed by a beautiful woman who seemed a bit younger than him, but not much.

She approached Sam's bed and sat beside her. She took her hands in

hers and started talking slowly and calmly. All this time Sam was wondering how she managed to get out of her husband's device. “Hello Sam, I'm Diana, Nat's mom. And Mike's wife. They told me you've never seen a car before or a phone. How is that possible? Where have you come from, Sam?” Diana asked as all three had their eyes on her, waiting for the answer.

She had to tell them the truth, she needed help. All this was too

much for her. She took a long deep breath and started. “It might seem crazy what I am going to tell you, but I assure you, I am not crazy. The situation might be, but not me. Or I hope so. So here it is: I am from this same town, but not this same time…. I was born in 1702 and I am 17 now. But I heard some people in a sort of box saying the year was 2019… This is all I know. I swear it is the truth.” She said crying.

“Wow!” Nat was the first to exclaim it. “You don't look 300 years old… “

“I am not. I am 17” said Sam, still crying.

“What were those monsters that ate those people? Can we still save them?”

Nat couldn’t refrain herself from laughing now. “Those weren’t monsters, silly, they were cars! We use them to travel faster. And the people were driving them.”

“Oh…”was all Sam could utter, eyes wide open in amazement. “And this is a phone. We use it to talk to someone who is not next to us.”

A few hours later and a lot of explaining later Sam felt her mind was

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tired with all the information. But she wasn’t the only one who was shocked. The Johnsons, Natalie's family, were also in shock. They couldn’t believe what Sam was telling them. That she had traveled trough time.

Mike was a cop and Diana was a psychiatrist and they could both tell

that Sam wasn’t a liar. She was telling the truth. But none had any idea how that was possible. They had never heard of any real cases of time travel before. I mean they had seen lots of movies about it but they never thought it could actually happen.

Mike and Diana had to show and explain everything to Sam as it

was all new to her. Like for instance how the microwave worked or the TV. Another shock was when Sam saw the washing machine and Diana told her it washed the clothes so she wouldn’t have to. She thought of how she had to hand wash everything and wished they had washing machines back in the 17 hundred. She wished she could show Kevin all the wonders she was seeing. She wished she could go back.